Backing up your computer

I encourage folks to backup their computers. Many people do not. I also say to NEVER EVER let anyone have access to your computer unless you sleep with them, or they sprang from your loins. If they are your paid IT person, that’s OK too.
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Backing up can be as simple as copying and pasting to a thumb drive, or, you can setup regular backups using Windows or Apple’s built in programs, which are very good. You might prefer using a third party program, and external drives generally come with one.

I like to clone my drive. If my drive fails, I take my clone and plug it in, and I’m back to where I was, whenever that clone was created anyway.
System images are also a great way to back up, and I found a nice article on that HERE.

In particular, it’s an article on RESTORING from a system image. The beginning of the article has a link to CREATING a system image. Whatever way you choose, you will need a source device to backup your data. Depending on your needs, that could be a thumb drive, or an external drive. Remember, you only have a backup if it’s in at least two places. If you take it off your computer and store it on an external drive, that’s just moving the data, not duplicating the data. And don’t partition your big drive into 2 drives and back it up on the second partition, it’s still the same drive when it fails.